I’d dropped her at my parents’ house, the only place I felt secure enough to leave her before I’d come to the station.
They’d argued, wanted to be here for me.
I’d told them that the best thing they could do for me was watch my child, ensure she was safe, make her feel as if it were just any other day.
“Okay,” Courtney relented. “Let’s go get that sweet girl of yours and get you home.”
She took me by the inside of my elbow and tucked me to her side, as if she could guard me from any bad things coming my way.
I could feel them all around me.
Getting closer.
Growing stronger.
Eyes watching.
Energy pulsing.
I struggled to keep my head bowed as I let Courtney guide me down the sidewalk toward her car, which was parked at the curb, our speed increasing with every step we took.
It gave me the sense that I was fleeing.
Running.
I guessed I should have known I could never run as fast and as far as him.
Because I could feel it.
The burst of hot energy that hit me from behind.
My heart stuttered a beat.
“Faith,” he called, voice a gruff rumble of a plea.
My face pinched, and my legs went weak below me, my feet no longer able to carry me.
I wanted to jump into Courtney’s car. Have her whisk me away to a secret place where no one could touch me.
Hurt me or my daughter.
Unable to stand beneath the intensity, I whirled around, the words already flying from my mouth as I did. “I don’t have anything to say to you.”
He stuffed his hands into his suit pant pockets. The man looked like some kind of distinguished model.
Polished and big city.
So different from the rough outcast I remembered, yet so much the same it hurt to look at him.
“What if I have something I need to say to you?”
Disbelief shook my head. “And what could you possibly have to say to me?”
Grief struck across his strong features, and despite the distance between us, I could see the way his thick throat rolled as he swallowed. His voice had only deepened when he spoke again, “I’m sorry about Joseph.”
I choked over the incredulous sound that locked in my chest. I wasn’t sure if it was laughter or a cry. “You’re sorry?”
“I am. Incredibly.”
I blinked. Long and hard. Before I forced my eyes to open and remain pinned on him. “You don’t get to be sorry for me, Jace. You have no idea what I’ve been through. What I’m goin’ through. Just . . . go back to where you came from. Go home.”
I turned and started for Courtney’s car. She returned her hand to my arm in a silent show of support, though I could feel her looking back at Jace from over her shoulder.
If looks could kill and all of that. Courtney could slay a man with a single glance of her razor-sharp eyes.
But Jace Jacobs was still standing, his words darts where they impaled my back. “I am home.”
At his assertion, I stumbled a step and my hands clenched into fists. Somehow, I managed to force myself to keep walking.
A long time ago, he’d promised me I’d always be his home. That together, we were gonna build a castle.
And the man had never been anything but a liar.
Four
Faith
I shot upright in bed, gasping through the remnants of the dream and the fear clouding the sanity of my mind. Again, I’d fallen into a restless sleep. Sucked down by the exhaustion, only to immediately jolt from sleep.
The sheets were tangled around my legs, sweat slickin’ my back so that the thin fabric of my tank stuck to my skin.
I sucked in a staggered breath, trying to calm the terror that clanged like a thunder through my veins.
A constant thrum, thrum, thrum, that beat and bled and threatened everything that was important to me.
Blinking through the haze of night, I threw off the sheets and climbed to my shaky feet.
Maybe I should have given in and let either Courtney or my mama and daddy spend the night.
But I’d told them I couldn’t be held prisoner in my own home.
That it wasn’t right to uproot their lives, especially since Mack had promised he would have an officer driving by the plantation several times throughout the night, the entire squadron keeping a close eye on us.
Still, he’d warned me that I should be careful just in case.
Watchful.
Make sure all my doors were locked up tight.
As if I wasn’t already jumping at every sound. Peering out the windows with each rustle of the trees and craning my ear every time the old house groaned. All the while, I’d be clutching my phone, at the ready to dial Mack if there was even a hint that someone might be trying to get inside.
It was just my luck that the old walls loved to moan all night long.